Religious freedom should start at home: Forum

Lilian Budianto ,  The Jakarta Post ,  Jakarta   |  Thu, 07/03/2008 10:39 AM  |  World

Religious freedom should start at home with families allowing children to embrace any religion they believe in amid widespread tension among followers of different faiths around the world, say scholars.

Siti Musdah Mulia, a Muslim scholar from Indonesian Conference on Religion and Peace (ICRP), told a forum Wednesday that parents should not force their children to embrace a certain religion, as such an imposition on the young would impinge on their future willingness to accept differences in the wider society.

"While society criticized the government for its failure to enforce religious freedom in the country, many of us have disallowed our own sons or daughters to embrace and practice the religion they wished," said Musdah.

The forum was addressed by a number of religious scholars, who talked about the contributions of women in society. The event was organized by the Italian Institute of Culture in Jakarta.

The issue of religious freedom took center stage after a radical group, armed with bamboo sticks, beat and kicked activists of the National Alliance for the Freedom of Faith and Religion during a rally at the National Monument park in Jakarta on June 1, leaving some 70 people injured.

"If children are not bestowed with the freedom of practicing the religion they want, they would grow up believing there could be no peace out there also," Musdah said.

He said parents had the right to teach their children a certain religion but not to force them to embrace it.

"Parent should also be aware of the concept of teaching religion to their children. Most cases I observe it turns out that parents defame other religions while teaching in order to discourage their siblings from converting to any other religion," she said.

Syafiq Hasyim, another Muslim scholar with International Center for Islam and Pluralism (ICIP), said society here had only recognized pluralism but failed to adopt it in their daily life.

"Recognizing differences is far from an ideal tolerance society. We need to engage ourselves into it, for example by giving our children their rights to practice what they believe."

Valeria Martano, a scholar with the Comunit* di Sant'Egidio in Italy, said globalization had made the challenge of living together in a pluralistic society much harder.

She said people might fear losing their identity amid the presence of so many other different nationalities, races and religions.

"People might feel the need to stress their identity to restore their feeling of security. And this can translate into a culture of contempt toward other religions and using our own religion as a contraposition toward other groups. There would be no healthy religious freedom if a society practices their religion only to counter others," she said.

Martano said the continuity of dialogues among different groups was important to ensure peaceful coexistence in a pluralistic society.

"And this is also the case with a family whose members might embrace different religions. Dialogue, conveying our mind, is the key to ensure that each member has freedom in expressing their faith," she said.

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